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This file picture taken on March 31, 2011 shows Britain's Prince William at the controls of a Sea King helicopter during a training exercise at Holyhead Mountain, having flown from RAF Valley in Anglesey, north Wales.

Updated at 4:27 PM EDT on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013

He may not have come riding in on a white horse, but this prince still came to the rescue, albeit on a different steed altogether.

On Tuesday, Prince William swooped in to help save a pair of hikers via helicopter after the two were reported missing earlier this week while trekking the mountainous north Wales region of Snowdonia.

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Per British media reports, the unidentified hikers, who were in their 40s and 50s, made their way to the area's Glyder range but were forced to camp out there on Monday--where freezing temperatures could prove life-threatening--after lacking the necessary gear to get them off the mountain before nightfall.

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The two had promised to phone a friend with an update during their trip, but when the call never came, authorities were alerted and a search party was dispatched.

The pair were eventually found by a mountain rescue team aided by rescue dogs, and William and his helicopter crew arrived to take them to safety.

Consider it yet another heroic feather in the royal's increasingly be-feathered cap: Kate Middleton's hubby, who is a trained pilot with the RAF Search and Rescue Force, has been putting those chopper skills to essential use. Over the last six months, he's participated in no fewer than four rescue missions, including saving shipwrecked Russians in the Irish Sea and schoolgirls stranded off the Welsh coast.

Looks like this is one prince whose duties to his people transcend mere ceremonial pomp and pageantry.